Peabody Essex Museum Reaches 3-Year Renewable Energy Deal

SALEM, MA — The Peabody Essex Museum has pledged a second three-year renewable energy agreement for its 23-builing campus in Salem.

The PEM said it will buy renewable energy credits to make 100 percent of its annual electricity consumption.

In recent years, PEM has prioritized energy conservation to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2022, PEM was awarded the inaugural Mass Save Climate Leader Award for energy efficiency.

The museum's first three-year agreement was set to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 7,000 metric tons.

PEM will also partner with the city of Salem and local organizations for the annual Preservation in a Changing Climate Conference. This year's event will take place at PEM on Sept. 17.

"As the nation’s oldest continually operating museum and an organization that is dedicated to the intersection of art, culture and science, we are proud to renew our commitment be to the care of our planet," said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. "Now more than ever, we feel a deep responsibility to stand among the nation’s cultural leaders taking meaningful action on climate."

This week, the PEM will open an exhibition that shines a light on a key biome for the climate: the boreal forest, which stretches across nearly the entire Northern Hemisphere, just below the Arctic Circle, and is home to 3.7 million people, 85 species of animals, 32,000 species of insects and 2 billion migratory birds.

Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest is on view at PEM from Saturday through Sept. 27, 2026, and is bilingual, offered in English and Spanish.

"This exhibition provides a learning journey that starts with curiosity, builds empathy and leads to action," said Jane Winchell, the Sarah Fraser Robbins Director of PEM’s Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center. "We are all connected to the boreal forest and our health and well-being are tied to its future. The vastness, beauty and solitude of this landscape touches something deep within us.

"It provides a place of hope in a changing world."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)